Every night thousands of lights, computers, printers and other office equipment are left on needlessly in empty office buildings across the city.

By imposing a tariff on this sort of waste, business might be forced to evaluate their policies and work to reduce energy waste.

Of course, some equipment must be left on – servers, refrigerators etc. – so the tariff would need to scale and offer exemptions for critical equipment.

BC Hydro estimate that 40% of employees in B.C. leave their computers on after working hours and this wastes 500 gigawatt-hours of electricity (http://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/technology_tips/managing_energy_costs/computer_power_management.html?WT.mc_id=b-10-08_computers)

When food scraps and organic matter decompose in landfills, methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is created. If captured properly, methane can be used as a fuel source (known as biogas). Biogas is considered carbon neutral since, unlike natural gas, it does not add any new carbon to the atmosphere. Separating organic matter out of the waste stream and converting it to biogas lowers the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our waste, creates a new fuel source, and makes recycling easier.

NOTE: This idea merges several ideas submitted calling for energy efficient street light design.

Many people around the world live in smaller housing units in denser neighbourhoods. In Toronto, many freehold lots are between 15-20 feet wide. The typical Vancouver lot is 33 feet wide. We could double the density in the City by encouraging the development of smaller, attached homes on freehold lots that are 15-16 feet wide. Density alone is not enough to create a livable city, but density will help to reduce emissions as well as helping to improve the affordability of housing in Vancouver.

Geo-thermal technology could heat a large number of Vancouver homes and reduce the amount of natural gas and electricity being consumed.

Offices that leave lights and computers on all night, and appliances that have transformers and use phantom power, waste electricity. The city should use and promote smart appliances that monitor their use and switch to a low-power state when not in use.

I try to avoid businesses which use outdoor space heaters. Outdoor space heaters waste energy by producing heat which is quickly lost in the outdoors, and burn fossil fuels and directly contribute greenhouse gases.

Reservoirs disrupt the natural water cycle, collecting dead biological material, resulting in massive amounts of carbon emissions, among other problems. And are NOT green. Let's switch it over to Solar or wind!

Vanier Park's ideal location for wind and reducing the GHG's for Vancouver's 3 major museums would not only be beneficial environmentally but would be a major attraction to the public.

The City of Vancouver owns Hastings Park and is creating a master plan for the Park, the PNE, and Playland. The current version of the plan calls for an expansion of Playland, which goes against the Greenest City Goal, unless... a new section of rides was created that were completely human powered. It Vancouver approved it, it would be the first truly green amusement park in the world.

There are many examples of individual human powered amusement park rides but nowhere in the world have they been assembled together to create a green amusement park.

Power generating tiles: the more people walk on these tile, the more power is generated, and the less use of traditional power generation options that depend mainly on fossil burning. These tiles could be used downtown, in malls, sky train stations, and any other area with high density of pedestrians.

We could use the potential heat from our shower, dishwasher and other source of hot water that we utilize everyday and utilize the energy to heat the hot water again ( Re-use it for a thermal recovery )

Create free parking for scooters and motorcycles, especially in congested areas like Downtown! It just makes sense: Two-wheeled vehicles take up less space on the road and are more fuel-efficient than cars. We just need safe, affordable and accessible parking.

Vote to support free scooter and motorbike parking!!!

Cloud computing servers that run on renewable wind energy also minimize the need for computer upgrades, high-power servers that stay on all night, and costly software licences. Google has invested hundreds of millions in green power and offers government grade office services at a fraction of current costs. They also recycle computer parts to create their data centres. By using these services, we become greener.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/google-buys-wind-power-first-deal-for-google-energy/

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/government/index.html

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/server-retirement.html

Dryers are huge energy sucks, and outdoor clothes lines can do a fine job drying laundry (at least for the 50 days a year it doesn't rain!). Perhaps a summer student could be hired to come install clothes lines at residences around the city.

The city is supported financially by the province. It is disingenuous to claim to be the greenest city in the world, while receiving money from the development of oil and gas extraction in our interior. Most of the population of BC lives in vancouver. It is our tacit approval that allows it. Vote No!

Half of Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions come from burning natural gas to heat our buildings. The large district steam heating systems found at the hospitals and downtown are significant users of natural gas. Converting these existing systems to renewable energy sources would reduce reliance on natural gas and help to lower our greenhouse gas emissions.